Noir
by blackthistle
Summary: Deckard is back on the streets of L.A. the rules of Running have changed.


Rain,

This place was full of it. Water I mean.

It never let up.

Torrents from the sky, as if somehow it could wash the filth off the streets. The street ran like slow, black, rivers pushing the crap the peolple left behind. Only to splash up on the sidewalks when a bio-waste truck went by. Smelled like the inside of a wet dumpster. That's what it was, one wet fucking dumpster. People swarmed and teamed like insects in some dark, rank colony. The human abyss was punctuated by the glow rods on the umbrellas bobbing up and down.

The 3rd and 4th sector were the worst. Not saying that one place was any better than the other. Down here everything smells like shit.

The rain was acid. This time of year mildy so, but then again that's like saying radioactive waste is only a little toxic. A build up is a build up and the buildings showed it. Anything new which was few and far between already looked like it had been here for years. Corners slowily rounded, windows became pitted, opaque like the eyes of a million blind men staring down at you when you walked by. Roofs corrode into the sides of the buildings looking like rusty tears sliding down to the sidewalk.

The pollution? Forget it. Everyone and everything down here was covered in it. The soot and smog from the oil refineries covered everything and everybody it touched. Everyone loked like a wet version of a fucking chimney sweep.

The news wasnt any better for the populace...

..8 out of 10 births were stillborn, something about the lead content in the rain. Got on everything. If you weren't eating it you were drinking it..if you were of the expecting type, and happened to be one of the proud mothers who delivered her bundle of joy alive there was a 6 in 10 chance it was going to be deformed or retarded...not looking good for the remander of the human race left down here in the streets of L.A.. Ladies and gentleman

The replicants well, there was another problem all togther.

As of 2017 they were no longer allowed on earth. Everyone knows that. Problem is that Dr. Tyrell went and got himself offed by one of his creations. His blueprints happened to disappear from his lab. Most likely an inside job. Now you got every Tom, Dick and Harry making blackmarket replicants and has them out on the streets.

Why? Why run your store with employees you have to pay when you can have your own slave for under 1000 credits U.S. ?

But, it goes deeper than that.

See a girl on the street you want?

Wife left you?

Just looking for a piece of ass that can never leave you.?

When she acts up you make a discreet call to the B.R. home office and turn her in, get her "retired".

Or how bout that loved one who passed away from eating badly engineered sushi, one who died from black lung or acid and lead poisoning?

Well my friend the resurrection companies heve a deal for you!

You brain scan your loved one (for a small fee of course) and then have the memories implanted in a nexus six or seven ( of course it counts on your money which model you get) but hey, who wouldnt pay to have their dead loved one "resurrected".

Thought about it a couple of times myself with Rachel...couldn't bring myself to do it.

Then you got the drugs, yeh that and the murder..they both go hand and hand but thats not my job. Mine? I retire replicants..Rick Deckard, Blade Runner, replicant.

How ironic right? Yeah I know.

It was Gaff who clued me in, him and his sense of humor with his origami. Stupid bastard. I would of never have even had a clue. Gaff is Gaff though. He wanted me to know. Fucked up huh? You have no idea.

See, the whole sordid thing goes much deeper than replicants and humans.

Rick Deckard never was..

Who was was one of the best, Ryan Ross. Three time decorated police officer of new Los Angeles...Blade Runner extraordinaire. 120 replicant kills under his belt. Its said he didn't even need the VK machine to know. But Ross, unlike most of us sloppy, tired grunts down here had a sense of justice. His idea was that not all replicants by nature needed retirement. They were more human than most of us fumbling fucks down here searching in the wet dark. His partner? Yeah, you already guessed it. Gaff.

You see, there was quite a bit of embarrassment over the six replicants that happened to hijack a ship and make their way into our fine city. First by the the outworld police who let them through their fingers, then by world border patrol who didn't detect them. And then by the commissioner of police affairs in L.A.

Somebody wanted something done and fast and that all fell on Bryants head.

Well friends and folks his star Runner is now gone.

And only a handfull of half trained and halfassess left on his team. What to do?

I'm getting ahead of myself here.

Before we do my story a bit on Ryan.

Ross had cops in his blood, generations of em. Family originally from Ireland a bunch of immigrants off the boat in N.Y. from the two centurys past . Paddies I think they called them..Somehow our friend Mr. Ross ended up getting a transfer to L.A. vice squad in 2000. Known for his dective work and sense of humor Mr. Ross rose quickly in the ranks being respected by every captian he worked under not only as a intelligent and direct investagator but one who couldn't be bought or bribed.

Where our heros Cinderella story takes a left was when replicants were introduced.

You see the Tyrell corporation started them on earth as servents. No memory, no humanity just slaves..genetically manufactured slaves to work on dangerous jobs here on earth. The problem came in when police officers were asked to gun down what looked like and acted like people in the course the first prototypes were nothing like were seeing with the nexus models. But, its still hard to blow the frigging head off something that can emote. Our friend had a big, big problem with this. But as good cops mostly do they do what their asked and ask questions later.

Ross ended up being promoted to the BR unit.

Bryant has and will always be the head of the BR unit. He was when the hero of our small by-story came on to the squad.

Automatically there was a butting of heads. Ross the seasoned N.Y. beat cop vs the world weary cold and calculated Bryant.

Ross was immediately put on the streets doing what a cop does best knowing crimes, seeing crimes, and stopping them.

Problem was, what people were calling crimes i.e. A replicant running from its master, was now punishable by death. But the media didn't want to say death

They didn't want to put a slavery spin on it. No cats an kittins, we were all too respectable for that! They called it retirement

So now friends, our friend Mr. Ross who comes from a background of slaves, a background of strangers in a strange land, takes it into his mind to do what needs to be done. Oh yes, he kills the guilty. But he also frees the innocent. Explaining to H.Q. that the perp got away, fell in a river, burnt in a car or structure fire. The ammount of guilty was still impressive enough to get the numbers H.Q. needed. And now comes along our young apprentice Gaff

Gaff, the young Japanese-Spanish rookie newly introduced to the BR department. Grew up in the streets, learning the cityspeak, brought into he squad originally as an informant but worked his way into the ranks. And then pared with Ross as his partner

The day of Ross death was like any other..

Three replicants to retire with Gaff in the passenger seat of the spinner...

Rain, always he constant rain.

They left H.Q at 8... by 9:15 there was a dying Ross and a critically injured Gaff with a leg broken in 6 places and blinded in one eye.

It wasnt even a replicant that did it. It was a a suicidal drug addict with a nuro bomb. A replicant next door heard the explosion and pulled both of them out of the building.

As Ross lay dying in the hospital, family and friends surrounding him Bryant did a dirty cop move.. He had his memories downloaded and sent Gaff with the information to the Tyrell corporation to start making a monster. That monster is me

I stopped and looked over my shoulder into the plate glass window beside me being bumped behind by the sea of traffic I was now holding up.

It happens sometimes you know, that feeling of Deja vu.. Seeing a place for the first time you're sure... but feeling like you know something about it. They say it hapens when replicants get memory implants. Erie as hell. The shop looked like they sold tobacco. Cigars, cigarettes, that type of thing..looked like some of the little french jobs Rachel liked to smoke.

I pulled up the collar of my coat, shrugged into it deeper and tilted my head against the rain.

I put one foot in front of the other and walked on through the puddles, keeping one step ahead of the memories. You slow down too much they'll catch up to you. Besides, toasters wernt supposed to have memories.

I let the sound of the thunder drown out the people around me.

So my story starts where one story ends.

Bryant need his star Runner back and needed him now. He wasnt particular about how the job got done. He just needed him pronto. Bryant was never one who was good under pressure he didn't want anyone breathing down his neck...looking in on his operation.

So I was given some memories. Enough of Ryans to put me in the position of star Runner, Lieutenant of Rep-Detect.

Implanted a couple other doosies too, just to make the story stick. Being retired, my wife moving off world with that scumbag, my time on the force, even where I lived, all that was were just implants and mock-up..smoke and mirrors. I have to give it to em, scattering family photos around was a nice touch too.. It all gave me a background story as it were. I had some of Ryans memories, the cop stuff, but not enough to make me Ryan. Not enough to make me anyone really.

That's where the story gets interesting. Bryant sent Gaff to pick me up. Of course they knew exactly where I would be.

Gaff speaking that crap to me. He knew that I understood it, he knew I fucking hated cityspeak. Well, Ryan did. Would ignore it if Gaff tried to talk to him in it ...didn't know it at the time but, it was Gaffs way of checkin to see just how much of his partners personality was floating around in my head.

Brought me in to see Bryant, the song and dance of the little people to get me on the beat again. Lies all lies. Gaff sitting there with his self-satisfied smile on his face, knowing what I would do. Knowing I'd take the bait.

Ryan would of taken it to make justice happen.

I just took it cause Bryant had shit on me, that and all I knew was to Burn em down, all of em. They were here with no papers.. They had to be retired.

So I went out, did my cop job I guess.

If your idea of a job is gunning down a woman who is running away from you.

Gaff wasnt pleased with that.

Come to think of it neither was I.

To tell you the truth made me sick to my stomach. Felt like puking the whole time. The shakes were the worst. No matter how much I drank I couldn't get myself to square with the idea of what I was doing.

There a lot of irony that comes with a replicant huntng down and retiring other replicants.

Its five years later. And im back in L.A.

Rachel is dead... been gone for months now

Bryant found me up north. Called me home...

Ran right back to what I knew. Back to the shift. Back to the grind. Back to dirty, wet streets to do what I know best. Retiring replicants.

This time I do it by my rules. My way.

A couple more things to clear up before we go any further.

First, Bryant keeps me close at hand. Doesn't want me getting any ideas in my replicant skull. I know exactly what will happen if I stray too far from the flock.

Our time up north? Dont kid yourself into thinking they weren't watching us the whole time.

Gaff is ambivalent. He knows im a good guy. A replicant, and I got some of his dead partners know how running around in my head. As long as I keep to the code and dont get in his way we're good.

I dont doubt for a second if I try to split or air out any of his dirty laundry to Bryant I'd be retired. So I give him a wide berth. I kill only guilty replicants, and I lie to Bryant. So does Gaff. I leave him alone he leaves me alone. He's done me a few solids, clued me in on being manufactured, sparing Rachel, tho I think he did that more for his code than me.

He'll pop by from time to time, something he heard on the streets, something to help with a case I'm working over, but were not the best of friends if you get my drift. I think its hard looking at a new face with some of his old partners mannerisms.

Tyrell of course is dead.

So is Holden, someone unplugged him. Personally my cop sense tells me Bryant had something to do with it. He had a lot of enemies anyways. So pretty much any loose ends who knew about me are out of the equation.

Except that is for Bryant and Gaff.


End file.
